Thursday, October 9, 2008

This photo was taken inside the Grand Central Station last weekend. It was not as crowded as it usually is during the week days so I was able to get some great photos there.

I am a huge fan of railway transportation and I wish we had great rail services like they do in Europe and Japan. I have taken the train from NYC to Montreal (10 hours), Toronto (10 hours), Boston (4.5 hours), Washington DC (3 hours) and Philadelphia (2 hours), and from San Diego to Los Angeles (2 hours).

I spent a lot of time skulking around Grand Central on my visit. It's fabulous. I knew about the Oyster Bar but the size of the Food Court really surprised me.

I took the Montreal-NYC train on this recent trip and I went over to Philly too. It really can't be beat in terms of dollar value. I've been on the LA-Vancouver train, Coast Starlight, a couple of times.

By the way, the Canadian dollar has dropped below .90 so it's a good time to visit Canada.

sûrement la plus belle gare du monde, la lumière qui rentre dans cette gare est magnifique. (et j'adore son petit marché)surely the most beautiful station in the world, the light that falls into this station is great. (and I love its small market)

What a nice shot, Ming, such warm colours, bright.No, I haven't taken trains lately. I used to travel a lot between Verona and Tuscany, before moving. I loved to take the "pendolino": a fast train that connects Milan and Rome. Much much nicer and more modern than any other trains here...

This is a great shot of this grand dame of train stations. I love the warm color of the stone and that shiny marble handrails. Just a beauty. We had a really nice historic one here in Birmingham but a bunch of idiots got together and tore it down. Sometimes we're soooo backwards!

I use to ride the train to Little Rock Arkansas with my mother in the summers to see my grandparents. Sleeping in a berth was the most fun of all!

Grand Central Station is an amazing building. Last night, on TV here, a new series started of The Worlds Greatest Cities. The first one was New York. The presenter took in all aspects of the city within a 24 hour period. He visited Grand Central, did you know the constellations painted on the ceiling are all the wrong way round? The artist had the drawing the wrong way up! To get round this it was decided that the view of the stars is the same as if you were a God looking down, rather than a mere mortal looking up!

Trains have played an ongoing role in my life, from taking the train from Mississippi to California when I was four, with my mother and six-week-old baby brother [to join my father, who had gone ahead to find work] to traveling from Chicago to New Mexico with a girlfriend one Christmas Eve, to countless trips between Chicago and St. Louis. Even now, a train whistle never fails to evoke a wistful feeling in me.

I grew up mostly on the east coast, but my mother's family was on the west...and and every summer, because she wouldn't fly, she and I would take Amtrak from NY to LA. Overnight from Penn Station to Chicago in seats...then two nights in a sleeper car to Los Angeles. At the time, I was too young and antsy to appreciate such a mini-vacation, but I would love to do it again now as an adult.

I do love trains. But I think that the United States has some of the worst trains in the developed world. Especially NJ Transit. Constant delays!

When you compare our trains to those of Europe and countries like Japan, Taiwan, Korea, it's pretty embarrassing for us. I guess because we're a nation of cars. But it would be better for the environment if we invested more $$ into mass transit!

I've always thought GCT a wonderful building! And I keep thinking of The Untouchables when I see it, especially this stairway. :)

I wish we had a good train system here in the Philippines, but we don't. We do have a light rail system in the metro, and I love it but it really needs to be expanded to cover more areas. I've been to Tokyo and their system really is fantastic!

This is agreat shot!!I agree with you. We need some kind of TGV out here. Ok, we have Amtrak to Boston and DC. And lots of train service to the tri-state area. But those trains are so outdated. If the U.S. is serious about the environment, there should really be some infrastructure investments, and incentive for workers to take the train (not only in nyc).